G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation

Yet when he was making the transition from wrestler to movie star, it took a little guidance from Bruce Willis to convince Johnson he wasn't going to fail.

"This was about 12 to 13 years ago, he was a huge movie star then, as he is today," Johnson says of his first encounters with the man who'd given action a new face with Die Hard.

Willis offered not only "encouraging words" but also "the energy of, 'Welcome, you can do it,' " Johnson says.

"There was some reticence about me trying to transition over, whether it be from other actors or whoever - which I understood, by the way. If somebody's successful in another arena and Hollywood comes calling and they want to cash in and leverage their success by doing, well, these days, a reality TV show ...

"But I wanted to become a good actor and I think Bruce knew that from the time we first met. Then we had dinner and really got to know each other and through that he was like, 'I'm here for you, I'm supportive of you.' He's been great along the way."

A decade or so later, it'd be hard to find two bigger forces in Hollywood action than Johnson and Willis. Indeed, Johnson has become the man studios turn to when one of their titles needs a good boot up the bum.

And that's exactly how Johnson and Willis ended up together in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

"We'd always talked about doing something together, so this seemed like the perfect fit," Johnson says.

The first G.I. Joe movie - 2009's The Rise of Cobra, led by Channing Tatum - made a chunky $300 million, but was largely treated as a joke. If this franchise was to go on beyond a second instalment, it would need to do something different.

Johnson had form. His addition to the world of The Fast and the Furious in Fast Five saw it gross $600 million, almost double the previous franchise best.

Then he stepped into the father figure role previously filled by Brendan Fraser in Journey to the Centre of the Earth and drew an extra $100 million into the coffers with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.

Of course, good form equals power. So what's the deal when Johnson receives a "will you save my franchise" call?

"The approach is to elevate," he says. "To help elevate the franchise in any way I can. It started with Fast 5, then Journey 2 came calling, then G.I. Joe ... But G.I. Joe is a bit different ... I don't want to use the word 'reboot', but it was important to reset what this franchise is; to take the slickness out of the first one and try to root it.

"Even though it's fantastical - you've got ninjas who are scaling the Himalayas - we had to try and balance it out with some boots-to-the-ground heightened reality."

Enter Johnson as the aptly-named Roadblock - the heart and soul of the Joe's army but disinclined to take the lead.

"Some pretty good heroes emerge when they're reluctant to be in that situation," says Johnson.

And Willis came on board as Joe Colton, the old-school soldier after whom the elite fighting force was named.

"They were key pieces," says director Jon M. Chu when asked if Retaliation would even have been made if either Johnson or Willis had knocked it back.

"We were looking at who could be that iconic hero for a new generation; who's the guy that could be the action figure every kid wants? Dwayne was the only guy for that.

"Bruce - I don't know if his character, Joe Colton, would have been there had Bruce said no, because that was built for him. But the fact that he was down was pretty awesome."

Johnson knows a thing or two about heightened reality. After a decade away from the strange merging of sport and melodrama that is WWE wrestling, he stepped back in the ring in 2011 in order to "give back" - yet another "franchise" that could do with his help.

"It was a business that provided me a great platform," he says of his days in the WWE from 1996. "It's really the perfect scenario where I can go back, become champion ... "

Wait - become champion? He wouldn't have signed on if "The Rock" wasn't going to reclaim champion status, right?

Johnson flashes those pearly whites.

"It sounds great, being champion, but to be honest it wasn't part of the big plan. The three-year strategy was to wrestle at Wrestlemanias and try to elevate the company in any way I can.

"Becoming champion is just something that kinda happened about eight months ago ... " He grins again. "It's awesome, by the way, I gotta tell you that. I've been champion before and even though it's showmanship and scripted television, with this interesting flair of reality that's very physical, it's still so cool."

He laughs the laugh of a man too happy to care if he's been caught out.

If getting back in the ring has wreaked havoc on his 40-year-old frame, Johnson's not showing any signs. Though he admits to seeing his orthopaedic surgeon last year - "just seeing what needs to be cleaned up" - he's still eyeing off an action movie career as long and fruitful as that Willis has enjoyed.

"You hear people talking about the acting bug - I thought it was a load of crap. Until I got on set ... " he says.

He found recently, on the set of Michael Bay's Pain & Gain, that his transition into movies wasn't so unique. His co-star and former rapper Mark Wahlberg had faced the same battle.

"I've known Mark for some time but never really gotten to know him, so it wasn't until we worked on this movie that I realised we had so much more in common than I ever thought.

"He had no prior acting experience either. Coming into Hollywood, he was very successful with his music; I was very successful at wrestling. But he loved movies, wanted the challenge and he's carved out a pretty decent career."

Johnson is enthusiastic about G.I. Joe but there's an edge to his voice when he talks about Pain & Gain, which opens in August.

"Pain & Gain is a very special movie," he says with a laugh. "I can't wait for you to see it."

Based on a rather haywire true story, Johnson, Wahlberg and Anthony Mackie star as bodybuilders who hatch a plan to kidnap a rich client.

Johnson reckons it could be another Be Cool moment - his turn as a gay bodyguard in that 2005 film raised a few eyebrows.

"You'll see a side you've never seen," he smiles. "Very, very interesting."

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Comments on this story

The Masked Commenter of Brisbane Posted at 11:27 AM March 28, 2013

I love his movies. Welcome to the Jungle is my fave. Also like The Game Plan and F & F 5.

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